Show me the money!!

The buzz of entrepreneurs building start-ups into businesses has affected how individuals now look at investments and returns. The conventional bank, bullion, share market & property investments, which are relatively more secure with a lower return on investment, now compete with high-risk start-up investments, which promise higher returns.

Where there is a wave, you will find surfers, some professionals, some learners and those who stand ashore with a surfboard, unable even to swim, let alone surf! These people talk the most about surfing and create a lot of noise. The doers do what they need to quietly, and the others watch.

An investor is your partner, not your boss.

One of our associates, a young, not-for-profit IoT-focused incubator, initiated micro investors to help start-ups build their ideas into minimum viable products. Investments ranged from as low as $2000 to $20000, so the application process was left relatively simple and open to all. The number of applications received to incubate 12 start-ups was 230 in the first week. The response was overwhelming, but to everyone’s surprise, just 4% had the capability / genuine interest to invest once the genuine cations were vetted. At first, this wasn’t very encouraging. Still, the opportunity to invest in these start-ups was opened again, except with a lot of documentation and personal financial criteria intended to filter in only the real investors. This time around, there were 42 in the first week, and 93% of the applications could invest & invest in the start-ups.

Asking the right questions gets you the right partners.

In the age of rapidly evolving technology, when time is of the essence, it is okay to ask investors difficult questions because only those who can put their money where their mouth is will be prepared to answer them. Unfortunately, for every real investor, there are a hundred or more Pseudo Investors and wasting time with these Pseudo Investors can come at a very high opportunity cost and make a start-up a nonstarter.

Time is a precious asset, especially when you are starting up. Don’t let anyone waste it.